The Crafter's Dungeon: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (literature books to read TXT) 📕

soot-stained and holey, was missing any sort of ties to keep it close to his body and was draped behind him like some sort of cape – which made sense because it would probably interfere with what he was holding.

A crudely made spear – though she hesitated to even call it that – that was made from a jagged piece of rock and a relatively sturdy-looking stick, bound together with the apron’s missing ties, was being held negligently in the person’s left hand, though he seemed to be using it more as a walking stick than a weapon.  On his hip, she could see another crude weapon – a hatchet, she supposed – stuck through the belt on his equally threadbare brown pants.

When he got closer to her Wolf that crouched behind a small stone projection, she could see the differences between him and a human even more.  Two small nubs were trying to jut out from around his mouth, which looked like the beginning of a pair of tusks; she could barely see them, however, as they were almost covered up by the long, full brown-colored beard the person possessed.  His skin was a deep russet color, though she didn’t think it was necessarily tanned over years and years being out in the sun; instead, she thought it was just his natural coloring, as he looked too young to have gained it through constant exposure to the outdoors.

What is he doing out there?  Sandra could obviously see that he wasn’t prepared to be out in that wasteland, though she couldn’t figure out why he appeared to just be wandering around.  On a second look, however, she noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and his stumbling walk was probably due to weakness, instead of intoxication (which was what she thought it might be at first).  With no visible means to carry food or water, she concluded that he was probably hungry and dehydrated.

“What do you mean?  Who’s out there?” Winxa asked, after hearing Sandra’s thoughts.

The Dungeon Core explained what she saw, and the Fairy uncharacteristically grunted in response.  Sandra thought Winxa wanted to give her some advice but couldn’t because of her restrictions.  Regardless, she was already planning on staying far away from the strange man, because she didn’t really understand what his presence there meant.  If he was part of a larger party of people, she didn’t want to invite trouble by alerting them to her presence.

Sandra was fairly confident that her traps and constructs inside her dungeon could protect her against a small party of whoever this man’s people were, but she didn’t want to hurt them in the first place.  Of course, if there were many of them – and they were determined to kill her for some reason – there might not be anything she could do to stop them.

So she watched from the comfort of her Mechanical Wolf’s vision as the man wandered within twenty feet of her entrance, oblivious to his surroundings.  She felt a faint urge to help him, but quickly decided against it – mainly because she didn’t have any food or water to give him.  Well, she might be able to rig a trap to give him fresh water to drink, but that didn’t help his food situation.  Either way, she didn’t want to get involved when she didn’t know what the risks were.

That decision was taken from her as the man apparently got a little too close to the Bearlings’ cave.  One-by-one they started to emerge, staring at the man with dangerous, feral eyes; somehow, he must’ve felt the weight of their gazes on him, because the man turned toward the large beasts and paused his shambling walk in shock.  He stood there frozen for a moment, before placing his spear-like weapon – she still had trouble considering that ridiculous implement a spear of any kind – on the ground slowly.  Walking slowly backwards, the man seemed to be trying to be as unthreatening as possible, while the Bearlings miraculously stayed where they were while they watched him.

Sandra instructed the Wolf to slink away and to attempt to stay as hidden as possible – she didn’t want to call any attention to herself or her constructs at all.  It was successful in retreating quite a ways back towards safety, when her Jaguar – who Sandra had moved to the mountain above her dungeon as soon as the man was sighted – saw the man trip over something behind him and fall flat on his back.

That was all it apparently took to break the spell holding the Bearlings in place, because they started to surge forward.  Sandra saw the man get up and start running – almost directly toward her dungeon!  If he kept on his current heading, he would probably miss it by 20 feet, but it was close enough that if the Bearlings caught him there, they would easily be able to find her entrance.

She made a decision that she hoped she wasn’t going to regret.  Sending her Wolf out in front of the running man, she watched as it raced towards her dungeon’s entrance.  Thankfully, Sandra saw that he noticed her construct and was instinctively following it – though from what she could see of his eyes, he barely seemed to know what he was doing.

The Bearlings moved fast, but panic and fright are excellent motivators; the man tore up the distance between him and the dungeon entrance faster than she thought possible, so she wasn’t quite prepared when he entered the tunnel leading to her first room.  Her Mechanical Wolf had entered first and activated the trap, which meant that the man ran blindly into the room and promptly smacked his head on one of the nearby Basher Totem’s arms, knocking him roughly to the floor and unconscious at the same time.

At least, she hoped he was just unconscious.

Chapter 26

Fortunately, Sandra